| Author |
Message |
Ryan Tucker
| | Posted on Saturday, May 18, 2002 - 2:26 pm: | |
After getting my second tom yesterday I thought I would try my hunt club that I have yet to hear a gobble on this year. Though I have seen a single longbeard and a longbeard and another turkey I couldn't see well enough to identify in the same place this week at 8 a.m. on some railroad tracks. With the weather predicting rain storms I figured those birds might try to hang out on the open tracks this morning. I called my next door neighbors son to see if he wanted to go. This would be only his second hunt of the year and he said he would give it a try. I told him to bring a rain suit, and since the birds don't gobble at that club we would just use my Ameri-Step Outhouse blind and sit on the railroad tracks and call occasionally. When we arrived this morning the rain was coming down lightly and the wind was about 10 mph. At daylight I yelped and birds gobbled but they sounded a long way off. In the wind, rain, and heavy foliage I figured they might be closer. Around 7 a.m. a hen came out on the tracks about 300 yards away and she saw our decoys and fed down to them over the next 1/2 hour while the rain steadily got harder and harder. A train came and spooked her off the tracks though. Then the storm hit. I had told my friend no matter how bad the rain got to not let me leave until 9:30 a.m. unless it was lightening. This would prove to be important. The average wind from 7:45 a.m. to 8:20 a.m. was about 20 mph with gust probably approaching 45 mph. No lightening though! At 8 a.m. I said we might ought to leave but if it lets up the birds will now certainly come to the tracks. So he said he wanted to stay, if I was alone I probably would have left not really caring if I killed another bird. So we stayed, and the storm let up. Sure enough at 8:30 a.m. two birds appear on the tracks just barely around the corner about 450 yards away but they couldn't see our decoys. I got my binoculars on them and saw they were gobblers and yelped really loud on an aluminum side of the triple threat. They threw their heads up and began walking our way. To wrap up this novel I clucked one time when they were at 15 yards and we doubled on them. To show you what a spring will do to a breeding gobbler his bird was 14.8 lbs, 9 1/4 inch beard, and 3/4 inch spurs. Mine was 13 lbs, 10 1/2 inch beards, and 1 inch spurs. I have never seen a male turkey jake or longbeard that light in the spring. Of course until I moved to Virginia I had to stop hunting the first few days of May. So I had never seen what a couple of more weeks would do to a birds weight. |
4DBIRD
| | Posted on Saturday, May 18, 2002 - 11:00 pm: | |
Congrats Ryan,
Luckily while you were out enjoying the nice weather I was in bed nice and cozy. HA HA
Give me a call about possibly booking a Merrriams hunt next year.
Michael |
Ryan Tucker
| | Posted on Sunday, May 19, 2002 - 9:12 am: | |
4DBIRD,
What is your number? Just shoot me an e-mail! |
GN
| | Posted on Monday, May 20, 2002 - 3:11 pm: | |
Well. You have finished in a flurry here my boy...absolutely a great stroy and our correspondents here have a real knack for scoring in the rain it appears...ATTABOY. |
Freddy McGuire (Vaturkey)
| | Posted on Monday, May 20, 2002 - 3:33 pm: | |
Congrats Ryan! Great ending to a great season! Those birds have been working really hard to loose that much weight! |
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